Step 1: 1: Supplies

Starting supplies:1) Large glass jar (not plastic!)2) Mother culture, or scoby3) Sugar (I use turbinated, but basic white sugar should work too)4) Distilled cider vinegar5) Unflavored black tea (green will work too, but avoid teas with flavorings or essential oils which will react badly with the culture)6) (not shown) Clean piece of breathable fabric to cover the jar of the mouth7) (not shown) Rubber bands to secure the fabric to the jar

The jar should have a wide mouth for putting in and taking out mother and daughter cultures, and should be large enough to contain the amount of liquid you want to end up with. The best way to get a kombucha mother is to find someone who's already brewing some! Each batch of kombucha produces a new daughter culture, so people who brew regularly tend to have scobies to spare. You can also find them available online.

Step 2: 2: Preparation

Make sure to wash your hands before dealing with the kombucha culture, to remove any oils that might kill the culture. Avoid antibacterial soap, because residue from this might also damage the kombucha. The culture will feel and look a bit like a small, slimy pancake.

The size of the jar really depends on how much you want to brew - larger jars will take longer than smaller jars. Something like a 1/2 gallon or 1 gallon jar would work well. I used a very big jar (a couple gallons) just because it's the only one I could find! You might be able to see the size comparison in Step 9 - the small jar with the checkered orange lid is a standard jam jar.

Officially, it's a "symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast" :) It's basically the organic culture that eats the sugar and vinegar and turns it into some healthy organic acids that give the kombucha its delicious trademark flavor.

I'd recommend asking around to find a local culture - natural foods stores might be a good place to start! If there's nothing local, you can search online for something like "kombucha scoby" and you should be able to find something there.

When I first started brewing, I couldn't find any cultures around so I bought my first one on ebay... They have a couple of sellers on there and you only need to buy one, then they are self propgating... And then some :).